2011 storm troubles still haunt region

Sunday

Oct 28, 2012 at 6:00 AMOct 28, 2012 at 2:57 PM

By Thomas Caywood TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

As the region braces for a potentially damaging pre-Halloween brew of downpours, flooding and high winds in what weather forecasters have dubbed “Frankenstorm,” the state's top law enforcement officer and its largest electric utility remain locked in a protracted legal battle over last Halloween's freak snowstorm.

Last year's storm hit with leaves still on trees to catch the heavy, wet snow and caused more than half-a-million power outages across the state. More than half of National Grid's customers lost power in the storm, many for a week or more.

National Grid maintains that, while customers may have been irritated by the long power outages, the company's response met the standards set out in its own emergency response plan as well as in state regulations.

State Attorney General Martha Coakley, who is seeking record fines against National Grid, counters that the utility failed to adequately prepare for the storm or communicate with customers and public safety officials in its aftermath.

In strongly worded legal arguments, lawyers for Ms. Coakley have asked the state Department of Public Utilities to block National Grid from recouping the cost of the storm repairs through higher power rates and to fine the company a whopping $11.7 million for its poor performance in the October snowstorm and an additional $4.6 million for similar problems after Tropical Storm Irene in August.

“The time has come for the Department to use its penalty authority to get the undivided attention of utilities in this commonwealth — like National Grid — that make empty promises to their ratepayers,” Ms. Coakley argued in a brief filed with the DPU in late July.

“I agree with that 100 percent,” said Wendy Steinhilber of Auburn, who lost power for about 10 days after Tropical Storm Irene and then for a week after the October snowstorm.

Ms. Steinhilber and her husband, Bill, are among the National Grid customers who filed written remarks with the DPU or spoke at a series of public hearings held around the state as part of the investigation.

“We ended up going out and buying a generator because we knew we couldn't depend on them to take care of us in the cold months,” Ms. Steinhilber said of National Grid in an interview last week. “If that's their best, well, they need to rethink everything.”

The state Department of Energy Resources also has filed legal papers critical of National Grid, which it said “failed to restore service in a safe and reasonably prompt manner.” The agency's deputy general counsel, Rachel Graham Evans, has asked the DPU to order corrective action, levy fines and deny cost-recovery.

Late this past week, National Grid's top executives launched a public relations blitz to assure customers they'd be ready for the coming storm. In doing so, Marcy Reed, National Grid's president for Massachusetts, acknowledged the company fell short in its responses to last year's big storms.

That's in sharp contrast, however, to the tone of the company's regulatory filings. There National Grid's lawyers have aggressively attacked the attorney general's position that the company fell short, saying she has “misrepresented” evidence in the case and pushed “unfounded assertions.”

“Certainly the company recognizes that its customers were frustrated by the multi-day outages experienced during these two extreme weather events,” National Grid lawyer Alexandra E. Blackmore wrote in an August brief.

But when the proper legal standards are applied, she continued, “there is no factual or evidentiary basis to support the unprecedented penalty being recommended by the Attorney General's office, nor any penalty.”

Ms. Steinhilber labeled that assertion “ridiculous.”

National Grid spokesman David Graves said despite the company's opposition to the fines proposed by the attorney general, the utility accepts it could have done a better job in its response to last year's storms. He said the company learns lessons after every major storm and adjusts its emergency response plan accordingly.

“One of the ways in which we can be better prepared, and one way in which there was some criticism aimed at us that we took to heart, is that we need to expand our contractor relationships over a wider geographic area,” Mr. Graves said. “We have reached out further into the Midwest as well as the South to establish relationships we can call upon when needed.”

Because the crews in those regions are farther away and take longer to get here, the company has to call them in earlier in its storm preparations, he said.

A DPU spokeswoman said there's no firm timeline for a decision on whether the department will levy fines against National Grid or require any other corrective action as a result of last year's storms.

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